Photoluminescent Characterization of MBE‐Grown Reactive Ion‐Etched GaAs

Abstract

surface damage resulting from reactive ion etching (RIE) is assessed by photoluminescence (PL) before and after regrowth by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Several proposed device structures with potential impact in the high speed arena require the patterning of submicron features by etching with subsequent epitaxial regrowth. MBE‐grown was etched by RIE, using , , or over a range of power levels, evaluated by PL, regrown epitaxially, and reevaluated by PL. Wet‐etched and unetched samples were also studied for comparison. The regrown etched sample results give evidence of the existence of deep traps. In addition, we observe that the crystal quality of regrown on etched samples is higher than that of samples etched with at equivalent power levels. Because of the presence of a polymeric film on the etched samples, regrowth was not attempted.